I think a lot of people loved CoH for being an alternative to blob n spam games. Suppression and cover mechanics add a lot to the gameplay. You had to learn positioning, timing, tricky mechanics. These things are of less importance when blobbing is effective.
"An alternative to blob n spam games"
Not sure what CoH you were playing, but I'm pretty sure blob n spam games were pretty prominent n VCoH.
That timing and positioning btw is also a big part of CoH2. Speaking of blobs n spam, VCoH was known for it's rifle spam/blobs, airborne spam/blobs, vet 3 PG blobs, vet 3 shrek spam/blobs, vet 3 panther spam/blobs, vet 3 sniper spam, kangaroo spam, piat blobs, arty spam, stormtrooper spam/blobs, etc.... So that "alternative game" people loved wasn't because of the supposed lack of "blob n spam you were thinking", it was because the balance was at 90% for all factions and the gameplay involved a better scaling of units/mechanics that allowed for universal use of everything in the game. Nothing was useless like in CoH2 per say. \/